Unfazed by the approaching Geng Guoye, Zhao Yunxiao stood his ground and threw three daggers straight at his opponent.
Geng Guoye immediately focused his spiritual sense on the daggers. As expected, there were talismans attached to them as well.
With a wave of his hands, Geng Guoye summoned three spatial orbs that flew out to meet these three daggers mid air.
Each of these spatial orbs was merely the size of a fist, and even rapidly decreased in radius with each second that passed. Yet even with their decreasing size, they remained big enough for the daggers to enter and disappear into them. There were no ripples or disturbances in the air as that happened, almost as though these orbs were open gates that had sent the daggers to a faraway land.
Fortunately, the orbs continued decreasing in size, until they disappeared shortly after devouring the daggers. Otherwise, who knew what would be needed to stop their charge?
The daggers had been neutralised with ease, but Zhao Yunxiao had not just been standing still, either.
With the daggers acting as a distraction, he immediately charged forward to meet Geng Guoye in a direct confrontation.
At the same time, two other Zhao Yunxiaos leapt out from the ground, commencing a three-pronged attack on Geng Guoye.
“Petty tricks,” Geng Guoye slashed out in a wide horizontal arc, seeking to attack all three Zhao Yunxiaos with a single strike.
Zhao Yunxiao One tried to block the sword slash with two daggers, only for the daggers to be directly sliced apart along with his torso. With that, he turned into earth that fell back to the ground.
Zhao Yunxiao Two leapt backwards to avoid the slash, only to be struck by an invisible burst of essence energy that suddenly extended from the tip of the sword, which easily split him in half at the chest. Just like the previous, he turned into earth that fell back to the ground.
On the other hand, Zhao Yunxiao Three brought out a huge metal shield, which finally managed to stop the powerful strike by Geng Guoye.
Bang-!
The impact sent shockwaves in all directions, picking up the fallen leaves and blowing them straight into the pavilion.
It was a successful defence, but Geng Guoye was not done just yet.
He quickly followed up with yet another sword strike, this time with greater power behind it as he sought to directly break apart the shield.
In most situations, this would not be the smartest move in the book.
If one’s opponent had chosen to adopt a purely defensive stance like Zhao Yunxiao Three had done, it would likely take quite a lot more effort in order to break through. Therefore, it would usually be ideal to try and circumvent the defence instead of trying to crush it head on.
However, Geng Guoye was not too concerned about strategy and tactics right now.
Against an outer disciple like Zhao Yunxiao, he was confident that he held the absolute advantage. All he was concerned about was how to make this victory appear as domineering as possible, so as to completely humiliate the other party.
With that, the simple-minded Qie Xing would definitely become more favourable of him, thereby allowing for easier access to Xiong Yekong!
And this truly served that purpose.
Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!
Zhao Yunxiao’s heels sank into the earth with each successive strike, as though he was nothing but a nail being hammered into the ground.
With each moment that passed, Qie Xing’s smile became wider.
And with each moment that passed, Geng Guoye’s confidence grew.
He could not see Zhao Yunxiao’s expression from behind the huge shield, but he could definitely feel the layer of energy protection on the shield quickly thinning away. His attacks were working, and it was only a matter of time before he crushed the shield in front of everyone!
He was not the only one thinking that way too.
Most of those watching shared his sentiments, believing that Zhao Yunxiao had to either come up with something quickly or face impending defeat.
But right at that moment, Geng Guoye sensed the surface of the earth tremble around him.
An earthen chain shot out from the ground on each side, seeking to bind him completely.
At the same time, another Zhao Yunxiao leapt out from the ground behind him, raising a black halberd high into the air to strike him from behind.
Another one?
Just how many clones was he intending to waste his essence energy on?
Geng Guoye scoffed.
But just as he was about to turn around and deal with the fresh attacks, Zhao Yunxiao Three suddenly threw his shield away, abandoning his defensive stance to throw two daggers at him before personally charging at him with a third dagger in hand.
Four attacks from four different directions.
It seemed to be somewhat of a tricky situation, but Geng Guoye remained unfazed.
[Spatial Orb]
The same spatial orbs from before made their appearances once again, only that there were four of them this time. Two of them devoured the flying daggers while another two directly pulled the earthen chains into space, breaking them from their root and neutralising them entirely.
Next, Geng Guoye turned his attention to the two who were coming at him from opposite directions – Zhao Yunxiao Three with the dagger, and Zhao Yunxiao Four with the black halberd.
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He had been convinced that Zhao Yunxiao Three was the true body due to the stubborn resistance earlier, but now he was not so sure.
Then again, it did not matter which was real and which was fake.
All he had to do was crush them both!
Instead of standing still and waiting for both attacks to arrive at the same time, Geng Guoye decided to take the initiative. He stepped in the direction of Zhao Yunxiao Three, intending to take care of him first since a dagger would be easier to deal with.
His sword struck like lightning, meeting Zhao Yunxiao Three’s dagger mid-trajectory.
No one had any doubts about the outcome of this exchange, not even Chen Pingxi or Lu Zhiying. Earlier, Geng Guoye had directly cut through two daggers at once, so how could Zhao Yunxiao Three stand a chance with just a single dagger in hand?
In everyone’s eyes, it was all about how Geng Guoye would fare against Zhao Yunxiao Four’s halberd strike after this.
However, what happened next caused everyone to widen their eyes in shock.
Clank-!
The exchange forced Zhao Yunxiao Three back one step, but that was it. His hand remained raised and the dagger remained intact, though it was now pressed firmly against Geng Guoye’s sword.
With this single dagger, Zhao Yunxiao Three had successfully stopped the sword slash!
Geng Guoye was bewildered as well. But while he was still trying to process this situation, the battle instincts that had been deeply ingrained in him quickly took over.
What followed was a barrage of sword strikes that rained down upon Zhao Yunxiao Three.
Clank-! Clank-! Clank-!
Step by step, Zhao Yunxiao Three was forced further and further back. Yet one thing was clear to everyone watching – despite the swift onslaught from Geng Guoye, Zhao Yunxiao Three was holding his own.
He was matching Geng Guoye move by move, stopping every single sword strike with that little dagger in his hands!
“What?!” Qie Xing stood up in agitation.
Chen Pingxi’s eyes lit up in surprise.
Lu Zhiying bit her lower lip in excitement.
Even Geng Guoye himself could not believe it. But as the person involved, he still understood the situation slightly better than others.
It was not that Zhao Yunxiao had begun to keep up with his moves. Instead, it was he who had been reduced to a level that Zhao Yunxiao could keep up with.
Everything was fine up until the moment of impact, but that was when things suddenly felt grossly amiss.
He had obviously put in ten levels of strength into each sword strike. Yet for some reason, the energy output only ended up being half of that. Even though he had indeed suppressed his cultivation level to the Essence Gathering realm, this difference was definitely far more than the supposed effect of that!
This completely messed with his calculations of speed and strength, making it extremely frustrating to say the least!
But why?
Just what was going on here?
He did not have time to think for long.
While he was still struggling to take down Zhao Yunxiao Three, Zhao Yunxiao Four’s halberd strike arrived from behind.
Geng Guoye struck one last time with all his might, forcing Zhao Yunxiao Three back a good few steps and creating a short window of time where he could spin around to meet Zhao Yunxiao Four’s black halberd with his sword.
Bang-!
This time, Geng Guoye no longer held the advantage. The impact with the black halberd easily forced back Geng Guoye’s sword, blowing his stance wide open!
“Shit!” Geng Guoye cursed out loud as he saw Zhao Yunxiao Four follow up by thrusting the halberd straight towards him.
At the same time, his spiritual sense also picked up Zhao Yunxiao Three coming at him from behind.
He could definitely bring his sword back up in time to guard against the halberd. But that would only yield the same result, where his stance would be blown open once more. This time, there would not be enough time for him to recover, making him fully vulnerable to Zhao Yunxiao Three’s dagger strike.
There were only two options for him now.
The safest option was to use a movement technique to get out of this situation, creating distance between them and resetting the fight.
Another option was to answer force with force, violence with violence.
Geng Guoye naturally chose the latter.
In the first place, this fight was meant purely to put Zhao Yunxiao in his place. While there was nothing technically wrong with escaping to reset the situation, doing so in front of everyone would greatly diminish the impact of his original intentions.
Who knows?
Due to the disparity in their statuses, this might even cause others to feel impressed with Zhao Yunxiao for forcing him back during a spar!
Not a chance!
[Void Blade]
Borrowing the momentum from his exchange with the halberd, Geng Guoye skilfully spun around to meet Zhao Yunxiao Four’s follow up with a backhand slash. At the same time, a familiar black matter shrouded his blade at a pace that was much faster than normal – forcibly accelerated by Geng Guoye at the expense of his energy reserves.
Zhao Yunxiao actually felt his heart skip a beat when he saw this.
Others might not have figured it out just yet, but the reason behind the reduced power in each of Geng Guoye’s strikes was due to one of the arrays in the Penta-Edge Grimoire Halberd.
[Disperse]
Born of a single archaic rune that had been inscribed with the essence of the water sapphire, this ancient array was capable of creating a dampening effect unique to the free-flowing water element, thereby greatly reducing the force behind any oncoming attacks.
This helped to bridge the strength difference between Zhao Yunxiao and Geng Guoye. Otherwise, without having cultivated the body strengthening system, wanting to exchange moves with someone whose physique had been refined through heavenly tribulation would be nothing but a pipe dream!
However, this dampening effect was not almighty either.
In fact, one clear weakness of this dampening effect was that it applied solely to physical force.
Geng Guoye’s Void Blade possessed immense destructive capabilities not because of the speed and power at which it struck, but because of its mysterious spatial effects. This was not something that the ancient Disperse array would be able to effect its influence on.
Faced with the Void Blade, regular weapons would be devoured without a trace. Even treasure weapons might face a similar fate if they were not hardy or durable enough.
Would his Penta-Edge Grimoire Halberd be able to withstand it?
There was only one way to find out.
In any case, he had collected enough materials to forge three halberds. While he did manage to complete this in a single attempt, he was still planning to forge another two halberds with the excess materials for contingency purposes.
As for the materials for the array inscriptions, that was a separate matter. In fact, Zhao Yunxiao was even toying with the idea of using different inscriptions for different halberds, which would greatly increase the number of moves at his disposal.
So, if this one ended up ruined... actually, let’s not think about something as heartbreaking as that.
Now, it was time to see just how strong this meteor steel was after being treated with the strange forging method given by Lou Yuan!
With that, Zhao Yunxiao put all his strength behind the Penta-Edge Grimoire Halberd, smashing it directly against Geng Guoye’s oncoming sword.
Bang-!
Under the watchful gazes of everyone in the Clear Thoughts Pavilion, the black halberd and black sword collided.